Singapore
is a cosmopolitan city state made up of various races. The
1990 census shows the Chinese as the majority with around
74% of the population, the indigenous Malays with 14%, the
Indians at less than 10% and the balance
"others". This "others" category
includes Armenians, Eurasians, Arabs and all other
"others". The census shows Arabs to be around
7,000, but unofficial estimates place the number of Arabs
at 10,000. The difference is due to a large number of the
Arab community being classified as Malays in official
statistics. The Arab community is almost all of Hadrami
origin.

The Arabs had played a dominant
role in South East Asian trade since the fifteenth century
and when Sir Stamford Raffles founded Singapore in 1819,
he hoped to attract the Arab traders to his new city. By
1824, there were 15 Arabs out of a population of 10,683
and Raffles anticipated a rapid growth in Arab
immigration. His blueprint for Singapore included
provisions for an Arab district. In giving instructions to
a Singapore housing committee in 1822, he stated that
"The Arab population would require every
consideration No situation will be more appropriate for
them than the vicinity of the Sultan’s residence."

The first Arabs to arrive in
Singapore in 1819 were two wealthy merchants from
Palembang in Sumatra, Syed Mohammed bin Harun al-Juneid
and his nephew, Syed Omar bin Ali al-Juneid. Their numbers
gradually increased and by 1846, there were five important
Arab merchant houses. The al-Juneid family in Singapore
grew to be a rich and influential family along with the
al-Kaffs and the al-Saggoffs and there are numerous
streets and a town council named after them. The
al-Saggoffs appear to have arrived a little later, as
spice traders, but acquired further influence by marrying
into a Sultanic family from the Celebes and among the many
properties they, like the other Arab families, acquired
was the "Perseverance Estate" where they grew
lemon grass. The estate is now considered the heart of the
Muslim community in Singapore. Apart from being successful
merchants and land owners, the family also became involved
in civic affairs and various members held civic office on
and off from the 1870s until independence. The al-Kaff
family arrived in 1852. All these families lived in
mansions of considerable opulence. The al-Kaff house is
now a restaurant called the al-Kaff Mansion, as a gesture
to preserve the name, but has no other Hadrami connection,
either in architectural style or ownership.

One distinctive characteristic of
Hadrami immigration into Singapore was that it was
re-immigration from Indonesia, rather than direct from the
Hadramawt. The early settlers came to Singapore with
wealth made in Indonesia and being already familiar with
local custom, were easily accepted by the Malays. The
Arabs in South-East Asia, by the time they came to
Singapore, already enjoyed respect as religious scholars
who brought Islam to the Malays.

The Arabs and
wakaf properties

The Singapore Hadramis were major
landlords, the large families having substantial
properties held in wakafs (trusts), which ranged from
private family trusts to public charitable trusts. Most of
the land in today’s central business district was once
owned by Hadrami wakafs. These wakafs, bearing the family
names, whether private or charitable, gave considerable
prestige to the Arab community among the Muslims in
Singapore.

In recent years, four factors have
affected the wakafs and undermined the status of the
community. The first three factors are the more
substantial and have been a direct result of government
policies. The first was the enactment of the
Administration of Muslim Law Act 1968. The Singapore
Islamic Council is the corporate body now empowered to
oversee the administration of charitable wakafs in
Singapore. The Arab trustees were in total control of
their wakafs prior to the Act. With the transfer of the
wakafs’ administration to the Council, the Arabs’
authority over them was considerably undermined. The
association of wakafs with Arabs and the reputation of
Arabs as benefactors diminished as their connection with
the charitable functions of the wakafs was no longer
directly visible to the public.

The second factor was the Rent
Control Act 1947. The rents of pre-war properties were
controlled and, in effect, frozen. As the Arab wakafs were
mostly pre-war properties, the income of the Arab families
correspondingly diminished. The decline of income from the
wakafs resulted in Arab economic influence diminishing.
The Arabs were also, unfortunately, not prepared for such
a drastic drop in income; they had not given their
children a Western education. Many Arabs went to madrasahs
(Arab schools) and some families never sent their children
for any formal education at all. The development in
Singapore since the 1960s has made it difficult for the
Arabs to compete.

The third factor was the Land
Acquisition Act. Land is scarce in Singapore and it is
government policy to have complete control over land
usage. The Land Acquisition Act empowered the government
to acquire land required for urban renewal and
compensation is paid on a predetermined formula. The
compensation amounts were significantly lower than the
prevailing market value. The government embarked on a
major acquisition campaign in the 1970s and 1980s. Pre-war
properties were the major target for acquisition as
Singapore underwent a modernisation programme. These
pre-war properties were subject to rent control and had
tenants that could not be removed.

The wakafs were hence not in a
position to develop these properties. Significant
properties owned by Arab wakafs were acquired and minimal
compensation paid. This eroded Arab wealth and influence.
It also diminished the Arab identity as substantial
landlords. The Sheikh Salem Talib Family settlement, for
example, used to have more than three pages in its audited
accounts listing the properties held, but the current
accounts have less than one page. More than half of the
properties were acquired by the government. The al-Saggoff
Perseverence Estate was acquired in 1962 for urban
renewal. Another 10-acre plot of land in a prime area was
donated by the al-Juneid family to the Muslim Trust Fund
(a wakaf created by the al-Saggoffs) to be developed so
that the income could be used for welfare projects. The
Trust wanted to build a mosque and a madrasah, but
building permission was not granted by the government.
That piece of land was acquired in 1985. In present-day
Singapore, the Arabs are no longer considered as the main
landowners. Many Singapore Arabs regard the land
acquisition policy as the main reason for both their loss
of status and identity.

The fourth factor is having
professional trustees manage the wakafs instead of family
members. Most of the large private family trusts had
problems of mismanagement or breaches of trust and legal
disputes. In many cases a professional trustee was then
appointed, which had a similar effect to the
Administration of Muslim Law Act: the management of the
wakafs became impersonal and the Arab families lost the
social status arising therefrom.

Culture, identity
and affiliation with the homeland

In the heyday of the Arab
prosperity, the Arabs of Singapore maintained close links
with the Hadramawt and a lot of money was remitted to the
homeland. The rich built themselves splendid houses there,
the most magnificent being the al-Kaff palaces. They also
used to send their sons back to the Hadramawt for a spell
to enhance their identity as Hadramis. This custom enabled
them to maintain their language and Hadrami culture and
even resulted in some Malay being incorporated in the
spoken Arabic of the Hadramawt. The Hadramawt was regarded
as a cultural training ground and the spell there the
final preparation for manhood. Upon their return these
youths would take their place in the family businesses.

During the second world war, it
was impossible to go back home, but the practice was
resumed thereafter. However, the Rent Control Act came
into effect soon after, freezing the Hadrami incomes and
signalling to them that the wakaf incomes would not be
sufficient for the next generation. So families began to
take a keener interest in the education of their children;
the richer families sent their children to London to study
and others spent time working in Aden rather than just
going to the Hadramawt. The cultural and linguistic links
were more or less maintained. But the family incomes
continued to decline.

In the 1960s came a major change.
The independence of South Yemen with a communist
government in power put an end to the Singapore Hadramis
returning home. At the same time, the economic
developments in Singapore made the importance of the
English language and of education even more essential. The
new Arab generation has grown up without Arabic and has
lost both its identity and its affiliation with the
Hadramawt. Some families, in the oil boom of the 1970s,
tried sending their sons to the Gulf or Saudi Arabia,
where there were first generation Hadrami immigrants
already and the young men returned with their Hadrami ties
and their Arabic enhanced, but it was not a success. The
young men did not like living in Saudi Arabia and their
prospects in Singapore were better than in the Arabian
peninsula.

The Hadrami community in Singapore
is now facing an identity crisis. The younger generation
does not speak Arabic and has lost its affiliation with
the Hadramawt, partly because Hadramis have stopped
sending their children back there. The Arab community
recognises the lack of knowledge of Arabic is a major
factor and an Arabic language centre has been set up. It
is hoped that the younger generation will learn both the
language and about their culture and heritage. The
challenge facing the community is to ensure that the new
generation maintains its identity. The link with the
Hadramawt needs to be re-established and travel to the
Hadramawt needs to be encouraged.